Marsha, I'm a movement specialist/educator, and I know the phenomenon you are speaking of. &nbsp;Children who recognized as struggling in school often have myriad combinations of sensory and movement disorders that lie beneath the surface. &nbsp;In fact, these &quot;disorders&quot; or hindrances come first, and the difficulties in the classroom follow. Children who have difficulty at age 8 jumping rope may have sensory-integration issues, an inability to coordinate their &quot;above&quot; and &quot;below&quot; limbs, tactile problems, rhythmic challenges, muscle weaknesses, and more. &nbsp;Children spend the first seven years of their lives integrating their senses through play and language experiences, and these can get derailed at any point along the way, even prenatally. &nbsp;Interestingly, once the sensory and movement difficulties get addressed, the learning capacities can improve immensely, as will self-esteem and social abilities. &nbsp;As far as written research goes, look into sensory integration as an overall topic getting addressed by special clinics and OTs, with websites and support groups available. &nbsp;This child may very well benefit by having an &quot;educational evaluation&quot; that will look into the integration of early reflexes and other senses, and offer therapeutic activities that have great success at helping these children. &nbsp;Best to address these difficulties before age 9 when brain mylenization is completing. &nbsp;Good luck!<br />

I cannot cite research but know it exists somewhere.  The motor skills tests for k-3 are there for a reason.  Physical activities can help develop pathways from one side of the brain to the other.  Just like having toddlers reach for the Cheerios or a crayon diagonally -across the mid line- helps develop the brain pathways for reading left to right and writing across the paper, jump roping probably had it influence,too. As a teacher I have noticed the same thing. A friend of mine has had her child do every possible training there is, including balance boards and crawling exercises. It all helped, some more than others. There's a lot of kids and adults who don't read well and did not crawl properly.
The concentration of turning the rope and listening to the beat and trying to join the beat and then actually jumping to the beat of the rope involves concentration for both sides of the brain.  As the two sides of the brain develop more traveled connections, other information can be passed those ways also.
 Listening to the beat of words, poems and sentence structure in stories takes similar concentration as listening to the beat of the jump rope and the rhymes.  Listening to grouping of words and then writing them down, listening to the beat of the rope and trying to do that beat with your feet. There's a lot of similarities. The same parts of the brain light up. Some kids even need to be moving when they learn their spelling words or times tables. They are kinetic learners.
Keep them jumping!